After
ten bloody years in Vietnam, we finally pulled out in 1975. We left
the country bombed out, Agent Orange-contaminated and a trail of 2.1
million corpses of men, women and children. We suffered 58,300 young
men’s deaths and another 350,000 horribly injured. Because of
P.T.S.D., another 200,000 combat troops who left Vietnam in one piece—later
committed suicide. Millions more remain divorced, homeless, drunk and
mentally distressed on our streets across America. We did nothing to
make the world a better place.

Later,
Robert McNamara, the architect of the Vietnam, in his book Fog of War
said, “I made a mistake.”

Ten
years ago, George W. Bush, arrogantly and without valid purpose—
idiotically attacked Iraq with the same immorality and ignorance as
Lyndon Baines Johnson attacked Vietnam. Gulf of Tonkin and Weapons of
Mass Destruction—both a bunch of balderdash. Bush should stand
trial for war crimes against humanity. He created tens of thousands
of “Newtown, CT” events in Iraq.

Barack
Obama promises to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014—two years
after he killed Osama bin Laden. Result: more bombings and drone attacks
that create hundreds of “Newtown, CT” slaughtering events
of Afghanistan families and other innocents. It would mean hundreds
of added deaths to our finest young men and women in military uniform.
Social scientists expect at least 150,000 to 200,000 more suicides from
former combat troops that served in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the U.S.
Army and Marine Corps today, an average of four men commit suicide 24/7.
War scrambles a person’s mind.

For
all the wasted lives, the stupidity and the futility of the Afghanistan
War, isn’t it about time we pick up and leave that God-forsaken
Islamic crazy place? We haven’t accomplished anything in 10 years—why
spend another two years wasting money, lives and resources?

This
president and our U.S. Congress show themselves as incompetent, arrogant,
stupid and out of touch with reality.

This
metaphor fits Afghanistan and Iraq perfectly: if you stick your hand
in a bucket of water, your hand will displace the water and raise the
level of the water in the bucket while you remain. As soon as you take
your hand out of the water, the water and conditions will return to
their original levels. In other words, you did nothing whatsoever to
change anything in the bucket of water.

As
soon as we left Iraq, they returned to squabbling, fighting, bombing
and killing each other. The Muslims have slaughtered the Christians
and run them out. The Kurds separated themselves into a distinct region.
The Sunnis and the Shiites cut each other’s throats daily. They
haven’t passed a constitution.

As
soon as we leave Afghanistan, and we will leave one day, they will return
to war lords, their usual illiteracy, horrible treatment of their women
and the customary Islamic barbaric Sharia law of that culture.

We
brought only death and destruction to both countries and we accomplished
nothing of enduring good.

We
suffered 4,400 deaths in Iraq, over 2,000 deaths in Afghanistan and
climbing and we have wasted $1 trillion for starters while we have destroyed
the lives of thousands of our young people in uniform. All in all, aren’t
you sickened by war and the futility of it in the Middle East? We don’t
win; we don’t lose; we just keep killing and being killed.

Mark
Weisbrot, co-director for the Center for Economic and Policy Research,
said, “Even worse, many military officers later join the boards
and executive suites of military contractors, where they rake in millions
making corporations like Boeing, General Dynamics and Raytheon richer
at taxpayer expense, and sometimes promoting war itself on the network
news…our military-industrial complex is as corrupt and rotten
as any institution of America’s broken democracy, and more deadly
than most in its consequences.”

Not
one single, logical or positive reason remains to continue in Afghanistan
or anywhere around the world. We bleed by a thousand cuts to our own
citizens. We suffer hemorrhaging of our lives, our resources, our morality,
our spirituality and our face to the world.

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Why
wait until the end of 2014 to pull our hand out of the “bucket”
of the Middle East? Let’s leave that tortured land today. Give
them back their countries, their choices, their way of life and their
freedoms to choose their own fates.

“Many
people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking
the truth, for being correct. Never apologize for being correct, or
for being years ahead of your time. If you are correct and you know
it, speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the ruth is
still the truth.” -Gandhi

Listen
to Frosty Wooldridge on Wednesdays as he interviews
top national leaders on his radio show "Connecting the Dots"
at www.themicroeffect.com
at 6:00 PM Mountain Time. Adjust tuning in to your time zone.

Frosty
Wooldridge possesses a unique view of the world, cultures and families
in that he has bicycled around the globe 100,000 miles, on six continents
and six times across the United States in the past 30 years. His published
books include: "HANDBOOK FOR TOURING BICYCLISTS"; �STRIKE THREE! TAKE
YOUR BASE�; �IMMIGRATION�S UNARMED INVASION: DEADLY CONSEQUENCES�; �MOTORCYCLE
ADVENTURE TO ALASKA: INTO THE WIND�A TEEN NOVEL�; �BICYCLING AROUND
THE WORLD: TIRE TRACKS FOR YOUR IMAGINATION�; �AN EXTREME ENCOUNTER:
ANTARCTICA.� His next book: �TILTING THE STATUE OF LIBERTY INTO A SWAMP.�
He lives in Denver, Colorado.